Cassie may have a sweet, vivacious personality, but she is someone who knows what she wants and is willing to take risks to get it. However, it hasnt all been smooth sailing for this young exotic beauty. While promoting her debut album in 2006, Cassie stopped at New Yorks Hot 97, and in one of the show’s more controversial segments, Cassie rated several male recording artists  including Ne-Yo, Justin Timberlake and T.I.  on a scale of 10 for sexiness. To top it off, Cassie then had some less-than-stellar performances on MTV’s TRL and BET’s 106 & Park. The media had a field day, branding Cassie as talent less and just another pretty face.Now we are approaching a new year and Cassie is back with a new sound. Shes brushed off the criticisms, learned from her mistakes, and has a new and improved outlook on life. From working with Kanye West to Jay-Z, the past 18 months have definitely made Cassie grow and with the future in mind, she discusses whats next. AllHipHop.com Alternatives: I hear youre in Miami in the studio right now working on the album Cassie: I am, like crazy.AHHA: Hows it all going?Cassie: Its good. Im getting there. Im kind of getting excited now. AHHA: So how close are you to finishing it?Cassie: I would say that by the end of the month I should be done, but I want to keep recording right up until the release and keep working. AHHA: Lets go back to your last album first. You garnered a lot of criticism for your live vocal performances. Did you feel those comments were fair?Cassie: [pauses] I think they were fair. People can only base their opinions on what they see of you; people dont know me as a human being or whatever. The only thing they can pass judgment on is from what they saw of me, which were my performances. So I think its fair that people said what they said about me, its what their opinions were. They were just being honest.AHHA: A lot of people just labeled you as a pretty face or eye candy. Do you ever feel your beauty is a curse as well as a gift?Cassie: I think its like that for a lot of women, especially in the music industry and in Hollywood or wherever else. I mean it can get in the way; I was actually speaking to somebody at Atlantic [Records] who Im working with on this album he actually came up to Miami to listen to some stuff a while back. He was telling me that when he first met me, he thought I was such a b**ch because I was just sitting there, hat down low, not saying anything, and he was thinking that I was some diva who thought I was all that. But actually I was just really nervous, and at that point I was also still really nervous about the new music and what people would think. What people dont know about me is that when I first meet someone Im really shy and quiet; I hardly talk until I get to know you and feel comfortable around you. So for me, between that and being attractive or whatever it is, people dont get to see past it or connect to my personality and it does get a little hard sometimes. AHHA: Do you wish you had done things differently the first time around and taken time to get used to performing live and so on?Cassie: Yeah thats for sure, but Ive said before that it was definitely a learning experience. It was a point in my career where I actually didnt know that I could say, No. Im not ready you know what I mean? I definitely wouldve if I had known that I had that chance. I just thought it was all-label-forward and that I had to do it, in order to not blow my deal. So I put myself in that place by not even having the knowledge that you can always say no to any situation that you dont feel comfortable in; whether it is live performances, interviews or whatever.AHHA: Do you feel more confident now? Or are you scared about the upcoming release/performing again?Cassie: Yeah, I mean definitely. My situation before messed up my head for a while, messed up my psyche because for a time I was just like, I dont even want to sing. It made me so sad because it made me think this is what made people write bad things about me or whatever. Then I got to the point where I went, You know what I love singing and I love performing and Im not going to let anyone get in my way.Im really working on it and I am in a way more comfortable place right now. I found the sound that I was after, which is the hardest thing especially when youre moving onto a project that is so much more important and you have so much to prove. I cant mess up this opportunity, you know what I mean? I really just got to step up. Its really, really important but I am very comfortable, Im getting to work with some brilliant people and Im having fun.AHHA: You have been in the limelight recently for modeling the new Sean John range, being in Kanye Wests Stronger video and singing back up vocals on Jay-Zs American Gangster album. Now they are all great opportunities, but do you worry by doing back-up vocals or videos youre putting yourself out there as just eye candy or back-up vocalist and not a lead vocal artist in your own right?Cassie: Umm. I actually really dont. With the Kanye video, I thought it was a real cool experience and he is a friend of mine and so I was like, Of course I will do that for you, of course Ill fly out to Tokyo. [laughs] How bad could that be, right? I dont really look at it like that, I think I need exposure and I havent put myself out negatively at all. I havent connected myself to anything negative; say Kanye or the Jay-Z thing or Sean John I think its all very positive. Its not like its me and a sex tape, right? [laughs] They were all opportunities that people asked of me, its not like I was trying to get myself attached to these projects or get out there, but I think its kept me visual, and its made people not forget about me. AHHA: Have you spoken to Kanye since his unfortunate loss?Cassie: I actually havent spoken to him personally because you know hes still dealing with things, but I contacted his people and I sent something over saying that Im very sorry for his loss and hes in my prayers. Its just a very, very sad situation. Everyone knows how close he was to his mother, it affected everyone in a way as it wasnt just somebodys mom that no one knew about. We all kind of knew about [Donda West] through Kanyes music and other stuff. I pray for him, his family and everyone that is around him. Hes a very, very strong guy so I think he will be ok. AHHA: Ok lets move onto happier times. You looked beautiful in the new Roc Boys video Cassie: [laughs] Thank you. It was so much fun. It was honestly just a good time. Puff produced a lot of the album and I was recording my stuff in the studio next door and Puff would be like, Cassie, could you come in here real quick and put some vocals on this and thats how I ended up being on [American Gangster]. When Puffy would have to go Jays Roc the Mic studio during the whole recording process, I would go with him and Jay would be there and Beyonce would be there and it was just really cool to be around that because I look up to all of them. The video was like a real party; there wasnt really any acting going on. [laughs]AHHA: I have to ask about Diddy. The rumors are not going away about you two dating and to be fair he does spend a lot more time out with you than he does with any of the other Bad Boy artists Cassie: They never will go away. [laughs] No I havent ever dated Diddy. Im his artist, and we are actually friends. We really are friends. I am fortunate to have that connection with him, we just happened to have really hit it off as friends, but thats it. It doesnt bother me people think that or say that we are dating as people are going to say it regardless if I am bothered or not right? [laughs] These are my friends. Im not going to stop hanging around someone or stop being friends with someone because people are making up things you know? It used to bother me a lot more but now I am like whatever. AHHA: What about the Ryan Leslie rumors? Do the rumors affect your relationships, make things awkward?Cassie: I think people definitely perceive me as being with these men because they dont understand how I could ever get to where I am without sleeping with them; do you know what I mean? I have never put myself out there in any situation that would make me seem slutty [laughs] but I guess thats what people think of me. AHHA: I wouldnt take it personally, its just the way the industry, blogs, internet is Cassie: Yeah exactly. Like, you know Lauren London? The girl I modeled Sean Jean with there were rumors that we were lesbians. [laughs] We are really good friends, and we talk all the time and we hang out but were not lesbians. [laughs] AHHA: That rumor sounds like another thing a man probably started, as it was his fantasy or something Cassie: [laughs] Yeah they are trying to talk it into reality. Me and Lauren London had made a pact that we would stop reading blogs because they only ever really write negative things; especially about us and [Lauren] called me and was like, Oh my god, I know we said we wouldnt read anymore blogs but I broke our rule and I just had to tell you that they are saying we are lesbians. [laughs] We just dust it off and ignore it most of the time. AHHA: So you dont like reading blogs?Cassie: I mean I used too and occasionally I will look at something like Perez Hilton or something like that. It is entertaining, but too many people take them too seriously and thats why they are taking over. AHHA: So are you single?Cassie: Im single. Ive been single for a really long time and in a way it helped me kind of find myself. I was in a three-year relationship in High School. Until I moved to New York, I was with him. I definitely want to get into a relationship again at some point. Its just hard with scheduling and things like that. AHHA: Lets get into the new album. What do you want people to feel once they have heard it?Cassie: Puffy and I have had countless conversations about where Im going, what the look is and how its going to pan out Ive grown up so much within a year, I mean if you had talked to me a year ago I sounded so different, totally clueless, [laughs] no clue at all on what I was talking about. Before it was just about, Lets have fun and travel and whatever. Now its about becoming a woman, and Im not quite there yet, but Im going through the experiences that make be get there. Its a more vulnerable album; its a little bit stripped down as far as vocally and the content in the songs. Like I did a song last night called Thats Not What Love Is and its about a very, very real situation that a lot of people can relate to. It has a lot of emotion behind it. I really hope people get it and they see me in a different light  without the makeup, the hair and the clothes just me, by myself. My album artwork is going to be really intimate. I want people to see me, how my boyfriend would, if I had a boyfriend that is. [laughs] The way the music is coming together; I sound like I feel it. AHHA: Who have you been working with on this album, as far as producers or guest appearances?Cassie: I have no guest appearances so far; Im sure that will come once we finish up and finalize the track listing and things like that. As far as producers, Ive got to work with Puffy which hasnt happened before, which is really, really cool. Hes really been hands-on with this project. I worked with Ryan Leslie of course again, I worked with Kanye, I worked with Eric Hudson, Brian Cox. Lterally I worked with a whole roster of talent. Last night I got the opportunity to work with a writer by the name of Jim Beanz, we had met before but had never really been familiarized properly. Im working with Danja and I was telling him, You know that song Perfect Lover on Britneys album, I love it. He was just like, Oh cool, and then I was telling Puffy that on his album I love After Love with Keri Hilson and I just found out yesterday that Jim Beanz wrote both of them. Those are two songs that I absolutely, completely love so Im really excited to work with [Jim]. AHHA: Do you know what youre going to call the new album?Cassie: No, Im still fiddling around with a few ideas, I just want the album title to be as intimate as the sound of the album. It may not be til the very, very last moment that we figure out the name of it. It also will depend on what the final songs we end up picking as well. AHHA: Do you feel it is better than your first album?Cassie: I wouldnt say it is better, but it is different. The first album was really just about the time and place I was in and I wasnt really involved in the process like I should have been. I actually have an emotional connection to the current album. I wouldnt say one is better than the other, but this album is going to be a more grown and personal experience between me and whoever is listening to it  which people may appreciate more. I just hope people like it.